The biggest, baddest, and stinkiest buzzword that defined celebrity gossip headline after headline in 2017 was ‘nepotism’. The reason? Famous bullshit-caller, and now latest bullshit-disher Kangana Ranaut dared to do something no other so-called “outsider” had ever done in Bollywood. She launched an attack on the ‘koffee’ couch of the biggest daddy of nepotism, Karan Johar, that ended up leaving a giant, gaping hole in Bollywood’s nepotistic fabric. It landed blows exactly where intended. It incited every star kid to spout every tone-deaf statement every one of us had anticipated. A lot has happened since then.

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Even though, it was the only thing any entertainment journalist worth their salt could talk about for a year; even though, it was the only thing that haunted star kids (as they continued getting bombarded with offers from the biggest production houses in Bollywood), nothing has really changed. However, now we have a section of people who (like Ross after being perpetually ignored by Rachel) have opened a ‘I hate star kids’ club, which isn’t really helping the nepotism debate. They are directing hatred towards a bunch of aspirants simply because they happen to be star kids. They’ve basically seemed to have forgotten that it is the rules of the game that need to be condemned, not the players who are bound to exploit those rules.

Bollywood is a competitive world. If you’re offered your dream role, no one in their right mind is going to say no. Yes, you can criticise the bad actors who keep landing lead roles because of nepotism but they are also exploiting a messed up system for their benefit. It is not the actors, but the producers, the filmmakers, the big banners who need to take steps to change the system. The ones who hold the power to change things are the ones who need to be condemned. Writing think pieces on why Ranbir Kapoor, Janhvi Kapoor or Tiger Shroff suck, isn’t anything but resorting to a personal attack, that too on an easy target. In a country like ours, (both privileged star kids and outsiders alike), all lenses are always focused on actors. When a Sanjay Leela Bhansali makes a film like Padmaavat, Deepika Padukone has to bear the brunt too, when Quantico writes about Hindu terrorists, Priyanka Chopra is expected to apologise. When Karan Johar decides to play favourites, it is Janhvi Kapoor and Alia Bhatt who are incessantly mocked.

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An old interview of KJo was discovered where he acknowledged that he cast Varun Dhawan and Alia in, arguably one of his worst films, Student Of The Year because of the access they had to him thanks to their privilege. Everyone thought that he will eat the humble pie when this story got out, but that didn’t happen. He promptly went ahead and announced two films last year – Dhadakand SOTY 2– which were to be made with the exclusive purpose of launching star kids Janhvi, Ishaan Khatter, and Ananya Pandey and putting the Dharma stamp of approval on Tiger Shroff. Just like we learnt, Ranveer Singh is actually Sonam Kapoor’s cousin, and that Vicky Kaushal is actually noted stunt director Sham Kaushal’s son, we are waiting to figure out where Tara Sutaria fits into the scheme of things. Perhaps, she is the female counterpart of Sidharth Malhotra, who indeed is one of the few stars we have today who don’t come from filmy families.

The thing about Ranveer and Vicky is that, even though they probably had the privilege of access to certain people, they aren’t star kids in the strictest terms. Everyone knew Arjun Kapoor is Boney Kapoor’s son, but no one knew Ranveer is in anyway related to this set of Kapoors. The same goes for Vicky. But they never had face the same struggle that a Kangana had to endure. There was a time when she had to sleep at a platform. Kangana, who is actually an outsider has made it, like the handful of others like Shah Rukh Khan and Rajkummar Rao. The fact that SRK’s daughter is now facing the same nepotism charges for landing magazine covers without really achieving much, is an entire conversation altoger. The fact that the narrative of Ranveer and Vicky’s success stories keep their filmy connections aside, often painting them as outsiders, has also worked in their favours. On top of everything, both of them are lauded for being powerhouse performers, which doesn’t hurt.

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The one good thing that has come of this entire juggernaut from last year, is that the same actors, who went out of their way to talk about their hardships and eugenic rights to stardom have finally let go of some of their stubbornness. While Saif Ali Khan acknowledged how horrible nepotism is, Alia spoke about how heartbroken she would’ve been if she was on the other side of the iron curtains that categorically makes it difficult for outsiders to stepping in. As star kids, a good step is to be aware of the privilege they have and talk about it. But, the real power lies in the hands of the producers. In our capacity, we can keep criticising production houses who deny talented newcomers significant roles till they take note and do something to balance things out.